Luckily, no, we did not need to reconstruct any cabs. But Jim did make three new cabs from scratch. On one, he used doors from an unused cab for the cupboard above the wall oven.

He reconfigured the double oven corner cabinet to make it hold the dishwasher and microwave, but that was mostly interior work. He did not have to shorten them at all. I also had him flip two wall cabs upside down and build a toe-kick for them to sit on. That way, the wall cabs became floor base cabs. The door handles built into the doors went from the bottom to the top of the cab when they were flipped, so they do look like skinny floor cabs now, not wall cabs.

Our new project is the library. I have 5 95" tall library shelves. The three middle shelves will be placed on top of a granite counter top above the three base cabinets I bought. When he does that, Jim will need to cut the cabs downs to the height that fits on top of the base cabs and goes to the ceiling. The base cabs are very plain, so he is going to add molding to their doors for me to paint when I get the three base cabs sanded and primed. Then when installation is done, I can paint all the trim between shelves and the entire base cabinets the creamy off-white I am imagining. I will then do a glaze in a brown to match the bookshelf shelves and the sides and backs of the book shelf boxes.

Are you thinking of using these cabs from DH's company in your kitchen?

There is a huge amount of them, a big kitchen, big bathroom, and entertainment center. More than we need. But, they are selling them for $1K! They are knotty alder and our cabinets are red oak, so we wouldn't mix them together, and since they are built for 10' ceilings, dh thinks it would cost more to buy them and have them remade than to have a new new ones made for ours. Still, $1K!

Those are the kind of deals that make me crazy, too good to pass up, but just won't work. Those are the ones that you just have to walk away from, sometimes.

Can you use the wall cabinets on their sides, so they open upward like Ikea cabs do? Make your base counters extra deep in some areas by pulling the base cabs out from the walls and have the wall cabs sit on the countertops?

You might also use some wall cabs on the floor. They are narrower than base cabs, so maybe you could line one end of the kitchen with wall cabs sitting on a toe kick like I did. You put them upside-down so the handles are on the top, then put a narrow 14" deep counter on top. It makes a narrow buffet.

Not really. It was the entertainment center I wanted, and enough kitchen cabinets to put a wall of built-ins across wall. But if they can't be cut down, it just won't work.